The beauty around around us--A photograph and a meditation

I found this photograph on the Steel Mill Pictorial Facebook page. It was taken by Mr. Michael Jones. He had this caption with his photograph:

when i would explore the old wheeling pitt mill in steubenville i would park in mingo jct and walk the tracks that lead to the high line….this photo is on my walk back to mingo

Now, I know this spot and so Mr. Jones' photograph and caption resonates with me in a special way. But I think that this reaches beyond what we know and becomes a matter of the "ordinary beauty" around us that most of us can glimpse and want to hold close to our hearts. When I look at this photograph and think of walking those tracks I think of history and what is in the past and how that shapes our present. I think of smells and tastes and ways of living that I thought would go on long after I pass on---but they won't. A steel mill, railroad tracks, and the very grayness of our lives can be things of great beauty, and perhaps this is so in part because the occasional color and joys of our lives illuminate the grayness around us, if only for a little while, and because they are so much larger than we are but were built with human hands and human plans.

This is a good time of year to be thinking about joy and color illuminating life. Mr. Jones' photograph provides a great meditation for me.